Blogs from Mendocino, California, United States, North America

Hidden between the fog of the Pacific Ocean and a vast swath of towering coastal redwood trees lies a magical landscape along the California coastline. A place where the bark of sea lions or bellow of fog horns is only muffled by the crash of waves against the majestic cliffs that jut violently from the crystal blue sea. A place of extraordinary beauty reached only after following the twisted byway that winds west from a scorching inland summer through dreamlike vineyards, colossal forests and oak-covered canyons towards the sea. While most of the country bakes in the humid blister of a summer heatwave this coastal dreamscape remains immersed in endless spring. Even on sun-filled afternoons of cloudless blue the cooling breezes of the vast sea drift inland to cool the headlands and tiny hamlets that dot ... read more

Geo: 39.3078, -123.798Tuesday, April 19 and Wednesday April 20 Kayaking the Albion RiverDecided to go and do some kayaking after eating breakfast at the headlands at Russian Gulch. While we were eating breakfast the first day, three gray whales came into the cove and glided around for a while and then headed on down the coastline as far as we could tell.Went to Albion Campground to rent the kayak. It is a very easy process; go to office and pay, then out to storage container to get paddles and lifejackets and then go down and pick out which kayak to use and off you go!We got to watch mother harbor seals with their young baby that were quite fun to watch. At times it appeared as though they were watching us as well. On both days ... read more

Lundi le premier septembre, jour de la fête à Émilie Nous sommes partis du camping Standish State Park vers 8:00. Nous sommes arrivés au State Park Mackerricher à 18:30. Le premier septembre, nous avons fait 44,6 miles, soit une deuxième journée de suite de plus de 70 km. Le trajet était très difficile. D'abord une montée de quelques km et une descente où nous avons marché. Ensuite quelques km de faux plat descendant où nous avons probablement atteint notre plus grande vitesse (20 km au moins). Ensuite une autre montée très abrupte et très longue. Nous sommes par la suite arrivés sur le bord de la mer et la route 1 s'est dégradée, le pavage était affreux et il nous restait environ 20 miles à faire. Nous avons rejoint des cyclistes des derniers soirs et partagé ... read more

We started off the day with breakfast and hands down the best bacon I have ever had in my entire life. That is no exaggeration. I'm not sure I will ever eat such bliss again. Then we headed out to Seaglass Beach, one of the big reasons I wanted to come out to Mendocino. I'd heard of it but I had to see it. I guess at some point a ship sunk or dumped a bunch of glass bottles off shore or something. Now the beach is covered in tiny bits of sea glass. There were a bunch of people combing the beach for it so I can only imagine that at some point long ago the beach had way more of it. It was pretty neat. I was annoyed at the people pocketing the rocks, ... read more

Geo: 39.3085, -123.809Drive the beautiful winding road along the Pacific from Mendocino south and on back to BerkeleyHeading back to BerkeleyWe decided to head on back to Berkeley after having another nice breakfast of potatoes, peppers, onions and eggs at the picnic area. We were looking for whales but did not see any.Decided to drive Highway 1 back to Berkeley and it was a beautiful drive. The weather was perfect for cruising along and traffic for the most part was very light so we were able to take our time and enjoy the scenery. Must say we did pull out quite a few times because it was so beautiful.We stopped at the Surf Market in Gualala and look around, take a break and have a nice coffee. This was after several stops for some incredible rocks ... read more